Seeds and floaters in her quarter - Margit Ruutel (EST) (2), Sabrina Jolk who bt Amanda last week. (but thery play each other in round one so only one can challenge Amanda.)
If she can win QR1 she'll face an Italian wildcard ranked in the 1000's.
She beat Chovjkova 76(1) 76(3) Looks like a close match until the tiebreaks!
She beat Alessandra Ferrazzi 61 60
In contrast to my earlier post Eugenia Grebenyuk (WR-318) emerged from Ruutel and Jolks section and will face off with Amanda for the place in the main draw!
(for the pessimists she is the second highest seed in final qualy round. So heopfully the other seed will win and she'll be first in line for LL even if she can't beat Grebenyuk!)
(1)Tathiana Garbin (wc) ITA vs Emmanuelle Gagliardi SUI (LL)Ekaterina Makarova RUS vs (wc)Giulia Gabba ITA Kathrin Woelre GER vs Sanja Ancic CRO Kristina Barrois GER vs (5)Alberta Brianti ITA
(4)Eva Birnerova CZE vs (Q)Olga Govortsova BLR Ivana Lisjak CRO vs (Q)Amanda Keen GBR Sandra Zahlavova CZE vs Stephanie Foretz FRA (Q)Giulia Gatto-Monticone ITA vs (7)Roberta Vinci ITA (wc)
(6)Sandra Kloesel GER vs Karin Knapp ITA Margalita Chakhnashvili GEO d. Lucie Hradecka CZE 76 46 63 Kyra Nagy HUN vs Simona-Iulia Matei ROM Youlia Fedossova FRA vs (3)Emma Laine FIN
(8)Yulia Beygelzimer UKR vs Maret Ani EST (Q)Madalina Gojnea ROM vs Nathalie Vierin ITA (wc)Valentina Sassi ITA vs Tatjana Malek GER Tatiana Poutchek BLR vs (2)Maria Elena Camerin ITA
Great stuff from Amanda in getting through a very tricky qualifying section.
Her rd1 qualies opponent [Chvojkova] is a tough player on fast surfaces. Naomi and Georgie have beaten her this autumn but she beat Mel South in Glasgow in October and has made a string of 25K and 50K semis and quarters this year.
Grebenyuk has a very big serve so Amanda did well to beat her in straights. The Russian has also been in good form recently, winning a 25K in Belarus. Anne beat her two weeks ago in Prerov so maybe she was able to pass on some useful tips.
Hopefully Amanda can end the year with a great run here. Lisjak says she's a clay-court specialist which sounded promising but then I looked at her recent activity. She's only played 3 tournaments since the end of August so maybe she's been injured.....but last week she reached a 75K final Hopefully she'll be a little tired from all those matches there. Her 2006 highlight has been making rd3 of Roland Garros before losing to Hingis.